Field of Invention
The present invention generally relates to data aggregation and analysis. More specifically, the present invention relates to determining predictive response time across enterprise communication systems.
Description of the Related Art
Businesses have access to an inordinate amount of information. For example, businesses collect data relating to customers, vendors, sales, inventory, employees, research and competitors. Some of this data is knowingly collected or stored for business purposes. For example, a business may record or store sales numbers for tax reasons and/or for determining whether to expand production or cease production of specific products. Often there exists a large amount of additional data or metadata that is accessible by a business. These additional data or metadata may be ignored because the data is difficult to access or because the business is unaware that the metadata exists (e.g., data that can be obtained from data to which the business currently has access). Generally, this metadata includes mined data that can be extracted from the data that the business collects or generates. The metadata can also include trends related to the data available to the business.
For example, a business may have enough data to determine the amount of time spent per dollar earned from each customer. The business may not be able to easily extract this information from the data available, however, because a determination may require accessing a number of separate systems and performing some amount of data mining or additional processing. In some cases, to determine the time spent per dollar earned from each customer, a business may need to examine sales numbers as well as the time and resources spent by each employee of the business who was involved in generating the sale. The time and resources to generate the sale could include more than just the time spent by a salesperson communicating with the customer. For example, the time and resources could also include the amount of time support staff (e.g., assistants) dedicate for each customer, the amount of time spent by technical support helping the customer, the resources used (e.g., paper, sample products), the amount of time sales teams spend to determine the best strategy for approaching the customer and delivery costs.
Moreover, as the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Businesses may also collect and store data relating to their own day-to-day operations. In some cases, businesses may be in the practice of storing electronic mail (e-mail) that is sent and/or received by the business. Because e-mail can be a form of communication between two or more parties that is both fast and convenient, e-mail can be largely relied on by businesses for everyday functions including facilitating internal communication with employees and facilitating external communications with various other entities including customers, clients, partners and vendors. Numerous e-mails may be sent and/or received by a particular business in a given day. There is, however, no apparent method available to determine a possible time frame regarding when a particular e-mail may be responded to. This uncertainty may raise various inefficiencies as the business and other associated parties may be waiting around for information to be exchanged. Knowledge about when a response can be expected, or even, in other situations, to whom to send the message, can be desirable when a timely response is needed.